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Graveyard Desert
Graveyard Desert is the twelfth and penultimate episode of The Future Is Wild, first broadcast on 18 June 2002. It showcases the Rainshadow Desert of 200 million AD, and features the bumblebeetle, the desert hopper, and the deathbottle. Synopsis After a hypercane leaves flishwrecks scattered across the Rainshadow Desert, a bumblebeetle finds one which is already occupied by grimworms. During the night, the grimworms leave the flishwreck to bury themselves and begin the next stage of their lifecycles, as desert hoppers come out to feed in the cool of night. One hopper becomes trapped in a deathbottle, and is dead by morning. The bumblebeetle, still in search of a flishwreck, is lured to a deathbottle and coated with seeds, but finally tracks down a genuine flish. After fighting off a rival, and dispersing the deathbottle's seeds, she deposits a cargo of grimworms in the flish, then dies. Appearances Organisms *Rainshadow plant *Ocean flish *Bumblebeetle *Desert hopper *Deathbottle *Common silverswimmer (stock footage) *Bat (stock footage) *Grimworms *Sidewinder (stock footage) *Meerkat (stock footage) *Ground squirrel (stock footage) *Burrowing owl (stock footage) *Kangaroo rat (stock footage) *Western banded gecko (stock footage) *Snail (stock footage) *Cone snail (stock footage) *Sundew (stock footage) *Pitcher plant (stock footage) *''Rafflesia'' (stock footage) Times & places *200 million AD *Pangaea II *Rainshadow Desert *Pangaea II coastal mountain range *Global Ocean Cast *Narrated by Christian Rodska *Bruce Tiffney *Jeremy Rayner *William Gilly Crew *Written by Victoria Coules *Principal Scientific Advisors: Neill Alexander, William Gilly, Roy Livermore, Karl Niklas, Jeremy Rayner, Bruce Tiffney, Paul Valdes *Images developed by Dougal Dixon *Animation: 422 *Animation Director: Peter Bailey *Compositing Director: Mike Shirra *Graphic Directors: Kate Finding, Nicky Thompson *Photography: Kevin Flay *Sound: Kevin Meredith *Film Editor: Liz Thoyts *Sound Design: Paul Cowgill *Music Composer: Paul Pritchard *Dubbing Mixer: Graham Wild *Digital Post Production: Sue Land *Online: Pink House Post Production *Set Design: Myra Lewis *Production Team: Jeremy Cadle, Clare Dornan *Researchers: Belinda Biggam, John Capener *Film Researcher: Lawrence Breen *Library Footage: BBC, Granada Visual Wildlife, Roger Whittaker Films/DDE *Production Co-ordinator: Kensa Duncan *Production Manager: Wolfgang Knopfler *Producer: Clare Dornan *Series Producers: Paul Reddish, Steve Nicholls *Executive Producers: John Adams, Daniela Bagliani, Walter Köhler, Ruth Omphalius, Dawn Sinsel, Emanuela Spinetta Notes *On IMDb, the episode has a rating of 7.9/10, based on 13 reviews."The Future Is Wild" Graveyard Desert (TV Episode 2003) - IMDb *"Graveyard Desert" and "The Global Ocean" are the only episodes not to reveal any filming locations in their credits. *The buried desert hopper shells emerging from the ground are prosthetic models. This is one of only three instances in the documentary of a future animal being represented by a prosthetic model, as opposed to CGI (the others being the decimated ocean phantom in "Flooded World" and the forest flish eaten by a slithersucker in "The Tentacled Forest"). **The plants which appear in the background of this episode, but are never mentioned, are also models, as is the flower of the deathbottle, making this a particularly prosthetics-heavy episode. **These plants are the only specially-designed future organisms in the documentary which are never mentioned, named, described, or alluded to. They only appear in the background of several scenes. *"Graveyard Desert" is the only episode to feature new footage of an animal introduced in a previous episode (the ocean flish). *''Reused footage'': An establishing shot used to show that night has fallen is also used for the same purpose in "Cold Kansas Desert". Gallery FIW 1x12 Title card.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow Desert 3.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow mounds.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow Desert 2.png FIW 1x12 Mountains.png FIW 1x12 Low mountains.png FIW 1x12 Hypercane.png FIW 1x12 Flishwrecks.png FIW_1x12_Bumblebeetle.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle on flishwreck.png FIW 1x12 Grimworm in flishwreck.png FIW 1x12 Grimworm jaws.png FIW 1x12 Sunset.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper shell.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow Desert morning.png FIW 1x12 Desert Hopper.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper browsing.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper.png FIW 1x12 Grimworm leaving flishwreck.png FIW 1x12 Grimworm burying itself.png FIW 1x12 Grimworm jaws at night.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow moon.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper group.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper in deathbottle.png FIW 1x12 Deathbottle opening.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow mountains.png FIW 1x12 Deathbottle pit.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper trapped.png FIW 1x12 Deathbottle trap.png FIW 1x12 Deathbottle flower.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle flying.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle on flower.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle coated in seeds.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle approaching flishwreck.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle on flish.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle depositing grimworms.png FIW 1x12 Bumblebeetle dies.png FIW 1x12 Stormclouds over ocean.png References Navigation Category:Documentary episodes Category:200 million AD